A Contemporary Christian Reference Site for Post-Modern, Post-Evangelic Doctrine and Discussion

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity.

We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity. An Age of Religious Pluralism.- Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world.- Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see.- Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.- Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIIIBe careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be.- Kurt VonnegutReligious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim ForestPeople, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. - Anon... Certainly God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. SlaterAn apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst.- R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument.

There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is

irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a

power, or a principle that can be manipulated.- Emil Brunner

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Queen of the Night, Whitney Houston
born August 9, 1963; died, February 11, 2012

New York – February 12, 2012 – Sony Music Entertainment today issued the following statement regarding Whitney Houston:

“Whitney Houston was an icon and a once-in-a-lifetime talent who inspired a generation of singers and brought joy to millions of fans around the world. She had a voice of unmatched beauty and power that changed music forever, and she leaves behind an indelible legacy of timeless songs that will never be forgotten. She also was an important member of the Sony Music family who spent her storied recording career with Arista Records. She will be greatly missed. Our deepest condolences go out to her daughter and her entire family.”

LOS ANGELES — Whitney Houston's life of glorious song and unnerving self-destruction apparently ended in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Grammy weekend, but it could be weeks before investigators know exactly why she died.

Coroner's officials said they will not release any information on an autopsy performed Sunday at the request of police detectives investigating the singer's death. Houston was found in the bathtub of her room, but Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter declined to say anything more about the room's condition or any evidence investigators recovered.

There were no indications of foul play and no obvious signs of trauma on Houston's body, but officials were not ruling out any causes of death until they have toxicology results, which will likely take weeks to obtain.

"We do not know yet and when we find out we will be in contact with be Beverly Hills PD," Winter said Monday. "But first we'll be in contact with the family and give them our findings."

Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said that his agency may release more details Monday about Houston's death, but it will depend on whether detectives feel comfortable releasing any information.

Security holds on autopsy results are used in some high-profile Los Angeles cases, with Michael Jackson's results being withheld for weeks while detectives pieced together the circumstances of his death in June 2009. Toxicology results are frequently necessary before the coroner will release an official cause of death.

The body, meanwhile, remained at the coroner's office Monday.

"The family is making arrangements," Winter said. "I don't know when the family is going to have her body picked up. But they are making arrangements and sometimes it takes a couple days."

A member of Houston's entourage found the 48-year-old singer unresponsive in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday, just hours before she was supposed to appear at a pre-Grammy gala.

The Grammys themselves were in part a memorial to Houston, a six-time winner. LL Cool J introduced a clip near the start of the show of a glowing Houston singing her signature ballad, a cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You."

Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder were among other performers who praised Houston and Jennifer Hudson capped the tributes with an emotional version of "I Will Always Love You" that ended with a personal note: "Whitney, we love you." Houston's most famous song was the most downloaded single for much of Sunday on iTunes.

Meanwhile, Houston's daughter was transported by ambulance to a Los Angeles hospital Sunday morning and later released. A source close to the family who did not want to speak given the sensitivity of the matter said she was treated and released for stress and anxiety. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, who is Houston's daughter from her marriage to singer Bobby Brown, had accompanied her mother to several pre-Grammy Awards events last week.

"At this time, we ask for privacy, especially for my daughter, Bobbi Kristina," Bobby Brown wrote in a statement released about an hour after she was transported from the hotel. "I appreciate all of the condolences that have been directed towards my family and I at this most difficult time."

A sensation from her very first album, Houston was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. She awed millions with soaring, but disciplined vocals rooted in gospel and polished for the masses, a bridge between the earthy passion of her godmother, Aretha Franklin, and the bouncy pop of her cousin, Dionne Warwick.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she became a rare black actress with box office appeal, starring in such hits as "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."

Bishop T.D. Jakes, a Texas minister and producer on Houston's final film project, a re-make of the 1970s release "Sparkle," said he saw no signs she was having any substance issues. He said Houston was a complete professional and moved the cast and crew to tears two months ago when she sang the gospel hymn "Her Eyes on the Sparrow" for a scene shot in Detroit.

"There was no evidence in working with her on `Sparkle' that there was any struggle in her life," Jakes said Sunday. "She just left a deep impression on everybody."

___

Associated Press writers Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tenn.; Bruce Shipkowski in Newark, N.J.; and Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.

Not even in death will God let go... Farewell Whitney.Be at peace in your Father's House whose Love is mightier than death's strong cords.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I wrote a piece not long ago on David Guetta's, "Titanium ft. Sia," and thought it bore some similarities to the storylines above. Storylines which any one of us may be able to say to one another that we too have been there to some degree or more. I offer this link as a way to express hope to any who believe themselves to be drowning in hopelessness. And as a way to provide perspective when lost in the depths of darkness and dispair. Be still then, and be at peace, hope is ever present.

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What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profoundanguish in his [or her] heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass through them they sound like beautiful music." - Soren Kierkegaard

When we say to the poet or singer-song writer, "Sing to us," what we're really saying is "May your poem or song help us put our suffering into words that might connect us to life again. That we might be able to begin the hard work of mourning and no longer live as dead people in desperate despair. Words that might help us face our loss with others who could share in our burden and no longer live alone in the brokenness of pain and darkness."

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Welcome. This is an evolving story of the Christian faith of the 21st Century - how it might look, breathe and feel. This blogsite is specifically focused on developing what a postmodern, postevangelic Christian orthodoxy may look like. One that is generous and missional.

Articles have been alphabetically arranged by topic and by date via the sidebars and a more limited "Index" area further below (sic, "Blogger" does not provide an indexing database per se). Scrolling through each topic will discover an evolving discussion that has matured since inception.

This site is best searched by Google using "relevancy22 + topic of interest" as the format. However, the search bar provided above on this blogsite might also be helpful. Each topic

has been built in interrelated correspondence with the other as reflective of interrelated doctrinal areas.

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Destroyer of Worlds

"Biblical criticism is perennially caught between the Scylla of interpretive freedom and the Charybdis of irrelevance. Too much hermeneutic freedom and the tradition disintegrates, losing its epistemological appeal. Too little interpretive freedom and the Bible becomes merely an irrelevant historical artifact, rather than the living word of God." Inherently, evangelical biblical interpretation is unquestionably caught between a need for relevance and the need for textual validity.

Without creativity we are not just condemned to a life of repetition, but to a life that slips backwards.The biggest failures of our lives are not those of execution, but failures of imagination.We are all inventors of our own future and creativity is at the heart of every invention.

A collection of essays in exploration of the divine and life of community

"Test everything. Hold fast to that which is true.” (1 Thess 5.21)

I wandered unto the templed mountains of Thy holy hills and there found My Redeemer...

Jesus is the best guide to God’s character.... That said, we must interpret Scripture through the lens of Jesus.... And in light of Jesus’ teachings about love, we cannot believe in a God of hate or celebrate violence. As such, we must revise certain traditional views of God’s wrath and hell in light of the testimony of Jesus.

Earth. Our Most Precious Resource.

The Land Ethic

Mark Twain once said, “Buy land, they’ve stopped making it.”

Obtaining and preserving land is important because we only have the resources we’ve been given. If no one bothers to preserve land then society will continue covering it with concrete structures until there is nothing left to cover up.

Many of us Michiganders like to believe that our lakes are bottomless, our forests are never-ending, our skies endlessly clear and blue. But it’s with this assumption that we misuse fragile lands instead of tending to their health.

Education is the best way to combat this mindset. We need to teach the next generation that the true value of our land isn’t measured in dollars and cents. An acre of forest is worth more than just a blank space on the map. An acre of forest is a wellspring of wonder. It’s a playground for all the irreplaceable plants and animals that make up the cycle of life.